Professor
Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
University of California, Irvine, CA - USA
Webpage

Integrating End-to-End and Cross-Layer Optimizations for Reliable Cyber-Physical Systems

Much attention has focused on safety and reliability issues for Cyber-Physical Systems.  However, the increasing embedded software/hardware content in these systems raises new issues for guaranteeing Quality of Service (QoS) – which we broadly interpret to include timing, reliability, safety, security, accuracy, etc.  In many engineering domains, functionality is either independent of time (e.g., a cause-and-effect model) or employs a crude model of time imposed by another abstraction (e.g., a feedback control system). Similarly, time is implicitly modeled in many software systems using notions of causality or sequential execution. Since time is not fundamentally modeled with functionality in many physical systems, we need to integrate formal models and analyses with simulation, testing, and monitoring of deployed systems in a mutually synergistic manner. These formal models must address both cross-layer and end-to-end considerations, capturing multiple abstraction layers from physical processes through various layers of the information processing hierarchy (application, middleware, network, OS, hardware architecture) in a distributed environment. A holistic approach to understanding timing and its interrelationship with other QoS metrics is critical for these distributed multi-layer CPS applications.  This talk will describe initial efforts at composing timing and reliability in a cross-layer manner and outline challenges in the context of emerging CPS applications.

About the speaker:
Nikil Dutt is a Chancellor's Professor of CS and EECS at the University of California, Irvine.  He received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989.  His research interests are in embedded systems design automation, computer architecture, optimizing compilers, system specification techniques, distributed embedded systems, and brain-inspired architectures and computing. He has received numerous best paper awards and is coauthor of 7 books. Professor Dutt served as Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES) (2003-2008) and currently serves as Associate Editor of ACM Transactions on Embedded Computer Systems (TECS) and of IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems (IEEE-TVLSI).  He was an ACM SIGDA Distinguished Lecturer during 2001-2002, and an IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitor for 2003-2005. He has served on the steering, organizing, and program committees of several premier CAD and Embedded System Design conferences and workshops, and serves or has served on the advisory boards of ACM SIGBED and ACM SIGDA. Professor Dutt is a Fellow of the IEEE, an ACM Distinguished Scientist, and recipient of the IFIP Silver Core Award.